NEW YORK, N.Y. — America's kids are embracing a challenge set forth by Scholastic Book Clubs and its Ambassadors of Reading, Eli and Peyton Manning earlier this Fall. At the halfway point in Scholastic Book Clubs' ClassroomsCare read-to-give program, children across the country are exceeding expectations to have their class read 100 books by December 18th. More than 10,000 classes have achieved the 100-book goal to date – and have been inducted into Scholastic's ClassroomsCare Hall of Fame.

"In football it takes a team to win the game, with every player doing their part. The Scholastic ClassroomsCare program also takes a team to make it work, the teachers to be the coaches and the kids to be the players. We are so pleased at the progression of this program and couldn't be happier to be a part of this winning season! GO Team Peyton and Team Eli — we've got your back." — Peyton and Eli Manning

Teachers and classes are still signing up and they can help spread the word with Scholastic’s tell a teacher flier, or with a tell a friend message. Once registered, the class can also enter the "Care Where You Are Sweepstakes." Two hundred classes nationwide will be chosen to win 500 books to donate to a charity of their choice.

Each year since 2001, ClassroomsCare has engaged students to read for a goal – to bring more than one million books to kids in need across the U.S. This year, the Mannings became the program's first ambassadors and the impact is evident. To date more than 50,000 participants have registered on-line. Scholastic Book Clubs expects that 250,000 participants will complete the challenge by December 2009. Make sure your class is counted by registering and entering the Hall of Fame today!

ClassroomsCare is an annual challenge to the one million classrooms that use Scholastic Book Clubs. Participating classes read 100 books, triggering a donation of books from Scholastic Book Clubs to ClassroomsCare’s charity partners, such as Reach Out and Read and Save the Children. This year, the Mannings’ youth charities, including the Peyton Manning PeyBack Foundation and The Eli Manning Children’s Clinics, are also involved.

Books are then donated throughout the year to kids in preschool to middle school who in many cases would not otherwise have books of their own. Classrooms keep track of books read on posters and online, and then tell Scholastic when they’ve finished. Books count when kids read them in the classroom, with their parents or on their own.

By the numbers:

• 27,114,500* - kids have read for ClassroomsCare since 2001
• 9,000,000 - books donated to charities through ClassroomsCare
• 1,084,580 - classrooms have participated in ClassroomsCare
• 117,458,000 – Total Books Read because of ClassroomsCare
  *The number of kids who have read for ClassroomsCare was calculated by multiplying the number of participating classrooms by 25.

ClassroomsCare is one of the many charitable initiatives sponsored by Scholastic Inc. For more information on how you can help out, visit the Give Back to School with Scholastic Web site.

Scholastic Book Clubs is a division of Scholastic (NASDAQ: SCHL), the global children’s publishing, education and media company.

Contact:

Tyler Reed
Scholastic
212-343-6427
treed@scholastic.com